The second prequel to The Hunger Games gives readers the best and most brutal insight into Panem yet.
Finally, after years of wanting and waiting, Suzanne Collins delivers the prequel to her Hunger Games trilogy that focuses on mentor Haymitch Abernathy, his origin story and his fight to the death in the Second Quarter Quell. But be warned, with brilliant writing and an inability to put down the book also come crushing blows and a story that is tragedy unheard of.
24 years before Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark enter the Capitol arena as District 12’s tributes for the 74th Hunger Games, Sunrise on the Reaping follows the story of their mentor Haymitch Abernathy as he is selected as one of his district’s tributes for the 50th Annual Hunger Games in which he will fight to the death in an arena with 47 other tributes aged between 12 and 18. The book follows Haymitch from his life in District 12 to his time in the Capitol, Panem’s affluent centre of power, both in and out of the arena before his return home.
Sunrise on the Reaping may well be the best but it’s also an emotionally brutal book to read. For those who know The Hunger Games trilogy, the overall ending for Haymitch’s character is a somewhat forgone conclusion. Thanks to the small details we know of his later years, we already know he has no real happy ending. But don’t think for one second that you know the story. Suzanne Collins has penned an absolute triumph in writing which, with unexpected twists around every corner, will leave you blown away in surprise. Yet this is no easy rollercoaster to ride as the words on the pages culminate in an absolute masterpiece of misery for Haymitch Abernathy.
Collins pulls no punches in demonstrating the cruelty of the Capitol at its worst, the oppression of the districts and the devastation of the protagonist as, with a stroke of her pen, she tears apart the life of District 12’s future victor and mentor. Collins’ use of real-life poetry also serves to add an air of poetic atmosphere as it and the prospect of the great beyond are perfectly intertwined into Haymitch’s story and Panem’s dystopian nightmare.
The sense of character and character development is strong in this story and amplified primarily through the protagonist and antagonist. Coming from seeing Haymitch as a drunk who would rather stay out of trouble in the beginning of the original trilogy, it is a surprise to see his character development in this story. We see him starting as someone wishing to stay out of trouble, before progressing as cunning and rebellious before being reduced to a defeated and depressed husk of a man. President Coriolanus Snow is shown at his nastiest and most vindictive; arguably the most monstrous villain in fiction and a man for whom you can do nothing but hate.
Straight from the off, Sunrise on the Reaping delivers far more than it promises in Suzanne Collins’ best instalment and portrayal of Panem yet. One which makes every line in the original trilogy hit harder than before. The brutal tragedy of the book is crippling from chapter one to the epilogue. Along with familiar character appearances and references; heartbreak, injustice and dystopia leap out of the pages and hit you as hard as the Peacekeeper’s rifle butt. Collins’ use of first-person writing turns everything up to 100 as through this, we see every single raw thought and emotion from Haymitch’s perspective, as if we are actually living his story. It’s a five-star read but not, perhaps, for the too faint hearted.
Words by James Jobson
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